Typography Definitions

Weight
Define: density or the lightness of the individual letterforms.
Example: Light vs. Bold text

Width
Define: How wide a letterform becomes from extending or compressing.
Example: Narrow, wide, condensed, extended and normal.

Style
Define: Level of boldness or kind of letter within a typeface.
Example: Light, bold, condensed, italic, small capitals or a series of symbols adapted to suit the particular typeface.

Font
Define: It is a collective name for a typeface but actually referring only to a single style.
Example: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, Courier, and Georgia.

Typeface
Define: A complete alphabet including letters, numbers punctuation marks, accents, special reference marks etc.
Example: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ1234567890


X-Height
Define: The height of a lowercase letter 'x'. It is an important feature because it (and letters of a similar height) largely determine the apparent size of a typeface.
Example: x x  x x x


Cap Height
Define: Height in millimiters of capital letter in a particular typeface.
Example: P...(height)...ace

Leading
Define: Used more in the days of metal type, the extra white that was added between the lines of the metal type in the form of strips of lead or lead alloy.
Example: (+1) or (+2) depending on the amount of extra points should be added between the lines.

Letter spacing (tracking)
Define: The amount of white spacing between letters.
Example: goat  g o a t   g   o   a   t

Type is traditionally measured in points.

Measurements
1 inch = 72 points
1 mm = 2.8346567 points
1 picas = 1/2 points

Point
Define: The unit used to measure letterforms.

Pica
Define: The printers unit of measurement that is equal to 12 points.

How many points in an inch?
72 points in 1 inch

If a letter set is 36 points about how many inches tall is it?
1/2 inch tall

How many picas in 1 inch?
6 postscript picas

How many points in a pica?
12 points in 1 pica